G and L L-1000 Bass Reviews

I purchased my L-1000 in 1987 from Charley's Guitar Shop in Dallas, TX. I paid $375.00 for it without a case. It was a used 1981 model in exceptional condition. I purchased this Bass as a replacement for a 1977 Music Man Sting Ray Bass which was stolen from me.

The Best feature of this Guitar is the Leo Fender designed Magnetic Field Design pick up. These patented ceramic bar pick ups were invented by Leo Fender and are only available in G&L instruments. They are extraordinary pick ups. MFD's in this configuration are humbucking and put out about twice the output of AlNiCo pups. They also sound fantastic. They are bright but also very warm and bold. This bass can come close to getting that Sting Ray "growl" without a pre-amp.

This is a very early example of a G&L. This particular bass was made about nine months after the factory openned for business and this particular example suffers from an irregular paint job. Today's G&L's have spectacular finishes but this one came from the factory with an "eggshell" texture finish. Collectors would probably find this quite desirable as it is an unusual feature for a G&L.

As with all G&L's, the construction quality is superb. A year or two after G&L was launched, Leo perfected his "bi-cut" neck and made it standard on all G&Ls from about 1982 forward. This L-1000 however still incorporates the old method of routing out a channel in the back of the neck for the truss rod, then filling the cavity in with rosewood. This is the same technology Leo used at Fender and Musicman. The bi-cut neck is a better design but once again G&L's with "skunk stripe" necks are relatively rare making this a very desirable feature of this bass guitar. It also has the original head stock design which G&L was soon forced to change due to a lawsuit from Fender Musical Instruments.

When Leo started G&L, he had a few innovative tricks in his bag that he had saved for his G&L guitars which are only available on G&L Guitars. The L-1000 is like a P-Bass on steroids. It is passive but is capable of an extremely wide array of sounds. I recently had this bass professionally set up and the luthier told me he had to open up the control cavity to see where the battery was kept only to be stunned when he found out it was a passive bass.